The longitudinal association between physical activity and insomnia symptoms among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation and the moderating role of sex.
Physical activity longitudinally predicted lower insomnia symptoms among Chinese adolescents, with maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation representing 'a small but significant pathway' between them, and some cross-lagged paths differing by sex.
Key Findings
Results
Cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) analyses indicated modest reciprocal associations between physical activity and insomnia symptoms across time.
A 3-wave longitudinal design was used with 1988 Chinese adolescents (54.5% boys; baseline mean age = 13.79, SD = 1.18).
CLPM showed that physical activity and insomnia symptoms had modest bidirectional (reciprocal) associations across measurement waves.
In the more stringent random-intercept CLPM (RI-CLPM), which controls for stable between-person differences, only the path from physical activity to later insomnia symptoms remained significant.
The reverse path (insomnia symptoms predicting later physical activity) was not supported in the RI-CLPM.
Results
Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation represented a small indirect pathway from physical activity to later insomnia symptoms.
The mediation pathway from physical activity through maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation to insomnia symptoms was statistically significant but described as 'small.'
The reverse mediation pathway (insomnia symptoms → maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation → physical activity) was not supported.
Authors note the effect was 'modest and should be interpreted cautiously.'
The finding suggests physical activity may reduce insomnia symptoms partly by lowering maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies.
Results
Sex moderated specific cross-lagged paths involving maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation.
Physical activity at T1 predicted maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation at T2 among females but not males.
Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation at T2 predicted higher insomnia symptoms at T3 among males but not females.
Despite these sex differences in individual cross-lagged paths, the overall mediation effect was not significant in either the male or female group.
Multi-group analyses were used to test these sex differences.
Methods
The study employed a three-wave longitudinal design with cross-lagged panel and random-intercept cross-lagged panel models to examine within-person change.
Sample comprised 1988 Chinese adolescents with baseline mean age of 13.79 years (SD = 1.18); 54.5% were boys.
Three analytical approaches were used: CLPM, RI-CLPM, and multi-group analyses.
RI-CLPM was used specifically to separate within-person effects from stable between-person trait differences, providing a more rigorous test of longitudinal associations.
Measures included physical activity, insomnia symptoms, and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation across three time points (T1, T2, T3).
Results
The association between physical activity and insomnia symptoms operated primarily in the direction of physical activity predicting later insomnia symptoms, not the reverse, at the within-person level.
The RI-CLPM, which controls for between-person confounding, showed that only the path from physical activity to later insomnia symptoms was significant.
This contrasts with the standard CLPM, which suggested bidirectional associations, indicating that the reverse association in CLPM may have been driven by stable between-person differences rather than within-person change.
Authors conclude that these findings 'provide longitudinal evidence linking physical activity, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation, and insomnia symptoms.'
What This Means
This research suggests that among Chinese teenagers, being more physically active is linked to having fewer sleep problems (insomnia symptoms) over time, and that this relationship works partly through how adolescents manage their emotions. Specifically, teenagers who were more physically active tended to use fewer 'maladaptive' (unhelpful) mental strategies for handling emotions—such as ruminating or catastrophizing—and this in turn was associated with better sleep. The study tracked nearly 2,000 adolescents across three time points and used sophisticated statistical methods to try to isolate genuine within-person changes rather than just differences between individuals.
The researchers also found that sex played a role in some of these pathways. For girls, being physically active at the first time point was associated with using fewer maladaptive emotion regulation strategies later, but this link was not seen in boys. For boys, using more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies at the second time point was associated with worse insomnia at the third time point, but this was not the case for girls. However, when looking at the full chain from physical activity through emotion regulation to sleep problems, neither the boys' nor the girls' groups showed a statistically significant indirect effect on their own.
This research matters because it provides time-ordered (longitudinal) evidence suggesting that promoting physical activity in adolescents could have benefits for sleep, possibly by helping young people develop healthier emotional coping habits. However, the authors emphasize that the mediation effect through emotion regulation was small and should be interpreted with caution. The findings point to potential targets—physical activity promotion and emotion regulation skills—for programs aimed at improving adolescent sleep health.
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Hu C, Liu W, Wu M, Wang X, Gao Y. (2026). The longitudinal association between physical activity and insomnia symptoms among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation and the moderating role of sex.. Sleep health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2026.07.007